Indeed the original tweet could have been more US-centric than I originally read (the replies came from all over the world, I pointed out Nigeria because there was one reply from there)
My main point wasn’t that he was trying to make non Americans bad but rather I don’t believe his premise that he was disclosing his salary information for a greater good of helping minorities and disadvantaged people.
Again I support disclosing salary openly but disguising it as an act of social good sounds distasteful to me.
There is a lot of data showing that salary differences for women and minorities are reduced in environments where there is more available information about everyone's salaries, to the point where I thought it was generally taken for granted. I absolutely believe that the poster was sincere in his intent.
That's probably exactly the point. They disclose salary info in a global forum without any context. For example, to begin with: what country is this? What city? Is this before or after tax? If this is before tax, how much do you pay in taxes? etc. etc. etc.
People joining in continue this trend, often with quips like "I make $145k a year, I'm underpaid". WTF? How is that underpaid? Oh? You probably mean "underpaid in a very specific area in the US"?
The resulting "developer salaries" is a dick-measuring contest with no context or purpose.
It’s only a “dick measuring” contest if either you tie your self worth to salary or you think they do.
When I see software developer salaries for SV companies, I’m mildly curious but I don’t look at them in envy. The two trade offs would be moving to the west coast and working for large companies. I’m interested in neither.
